


(No) Reason to Worry

by kuro



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1985796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro/pseuds/kuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's behaviour has been weird lately. Steve worries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(No) Reason to Worry

Steve looked at the clock again. It was almost midnight already. Again. This was the third day in a row that Tony had left early in the morning, only to return long after midnight, dropping onto the bed like a puppet that had its strings cut. And by the break of dawn, he was already dragging himself to the shower, disappearing once more for the rest of the day. They hadn’t had a proper conversation in days.

Steve didn’t want to be worried.

He was.

Since Tony refused to answer his own phone, Steve had already considered calling Pepper or Rhodey several times. In the end, he hadn’t quite dared to do so. Both Pepper and Rhodey were already busy enough as it was, and this was between Tony and him.

Steve sighed deeply and closed the book he hadn’t been reading anyway. He should simply go to sleep. It wasn’t like he could change anything about the situation right now, anyway. Once Tony returned home, he would be too tired to have a conversation.

He turned off the light and wrapped himself in his blanket. Without Tony there with him, he felt strangely lonely and cold, like the feeling just before he got sick. But it wasn’t like he could get sick anymore.

Sighing again, he pressed his eyes closed and tried to sleep.

* * *

 

He woke up from a restless slumber when something was pulling on his blanket.

“Wha… Tony?” he asked sleepily.

Tony was really there, in the dark, wiggling inside his blanket and huddling up close to Steve.

“Steeebe,” Tony sighed once he was comfortable, gave Steve a sloppy kiss, and then promptly passed out.

Steve was irked. He couldn’t go back to sleep for a long time.

He still wrapped his arms around Tony and hugged him close to him.

He would take what he could still get.

* * *

 

The next morning, Steve was woken up by Tony struggling out of the blanket and cursing under his breath. He could hear him run around to get all his stuff together, getting ready and dressed in a hurry before Steve even had the chance to say a much as ‘good morning’. When Steve got up from the bed, Tony was already fully dressed, throwing a blown kiss over his shoulder.

“Don’t forget the gala this evening, babe,” he reminded him hurriedly, and then he was already out of the door.

Steve stood in the middle of the room, completely dumbfounded.

Just _what_ was going on here?

* * *

 

Steve was an optimist by his very nature. Some people might say ‘obstinate and refusing to budge’, but Steve insisted it was called optimism. Unfortunately, at the moment, all his optimism wasn’t really helping him. Something was wrong with Tony, with their relationship, and Steve felt utterly helpless.

Things couldn’t continue like this.

Slightly irritated, he tugged on his suit and fixed his tie. He really didn’t want to go to the gala tonight, especially not with the current situation with Tony, but he had responsibilities, and he would own up to them.

Tony picked him up in a limousine, already wearing a tuxedo, the recent lack of sleep carefully hidden away by the generous application of make-up. If Steve hadn’t known better, he would have thought Tony looked ready to party the whole night long. Because he knew Tony very well, however, he could see that Tony was clearly very, _very_ exhausted. And he couldn’t help but think he might have a part in that. That he might be _the_ reason. A heavy feeling settled in his stomach.

Once Steve had taken his seat next to Tony, Tony leaned into Steve and started to doze a little until they arrived at their destination. Steve allowed it wordlessly. It was him who always told Tony he should take naps if he could, so anything else would be hypocritical.

The worry in his mind stubbornly refused to disappear, though.

* * *

 

Tony had basically deposited him in a corner and then went off to _flirt_ with other people, and Steve could feel that his discontentment was starting to show on his face. He had hoped they would be able to spend at least a _little_ time together during the gala, but _no_ , there were lots of important guests that Tony apparently needed to talk with on his own, and Steve had just about had enough.

He placed the glass of apple juice he had been sipping on on a nearby table and made his way over to Tony. Tony, who had currently his back to him and was busy making a few extravagantly clothed women giggle with some kind of (probably) lurid story.

He went up straight to Tony and wrapped his arms around Tony’s waist. Tony, who hadn’t heard him nearing, made a small, squawking sound. Feeling a little vindictive, Steve bowed his head down and kissed the side of Tony’s neck gently.

“Having fun?” he asked, giving the ladies his brightest (and most fake) smile, making them dissolve into more giggles.

“Steve!” Tony hissed, looking slightly embarrassed. Steve ignored him, enjoying the game.

“You two are such a wonderful couple!” one of the ladies said. “So loving!”

“Yes, we’re very much in love with each other,” Steve replied, letting his smile morph into something a little darker. He unwrapped one of his hands from Tony’s waist, slid it up his body, and purposefully slipped his hand down the collar of Tony’s dress shirt, caressing that one spot at the back of his neck. Tony’s eyes widened and he made a strangled sound, and he would have probably dropped to his knees if one of Steve’s arm hadn’t sill been wrapped around his waist, holding him up.

“Now, I hope you don’t mind if I borrow Tony for a second, miladies,” Steve said with a wicked grin that promised all sorts of dirty things, and the ladies dissolved into giggles once more. “I hope you have a lovely evening!”

With that, he half carried Tony away.

“We will!” one of the ladies shouted after them.

* * *

 

“Steve, are you out of your mind?” Tony asked angrily once they had found an empty room where they could talk uninterrupted.

“No, this is apparently the only way I get to actually talk with you anymore!” Steve spat.

“Steve… what?” Tony looked at him, confused.

“You’ve been so busy recently, we haven’t had a proper conversation in days! You disappear the whole day, you only return late at night!” Steve shouted, working himself up into a bit of a frenzy. “Heck, we haven’t had sex for a _week_! Tony, what I’m supposed to think? I love you, I want to give you whatever you need, but how can I do that when you _won’t even speak to me_!”

The two of them stared at each other for a moment. Steve was breathing heavily, trying to get himself to calm down. Tony, for some reason, was only looking at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Steve,” Tony finally spoke up. “I… I didn’t notice. I was constantly thinking about you, so I didn’t realise…”

“You were… thinking about me?” Steve asked, taken off guard. “I thought you were thinking about _breaking up with me_.”

“Steve!,” Tony exclaimed. “Oh my god, no, why would I do that? You are the best thing in my life! You are…”

Tony trailed off, hanging his head.

“I am what, Tony?” Steve sternly asked. He needed to know. He needed to know they were okay.

“I’m such an idiot,” Tony cursed, looking up and into Steve’s eyes with a determined expression. “You are the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. So I wanted to propose to you, and I wanted to make it perfect. And I got so absorbed into getting everything perfect that I neglected the one thing I was doing it all for. Look at me, failing hard.”

It took Steve a few seconds to process all that. Did he hear right just now? Was he dreaming? But he decidedly wasn’t dreaming.

He suddenly couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He was so _relieved._ And it was so much like Tony.

Just like that pout he currently had on his face.

“I just confessed that I’m planning to propose to you, and you’re laughing?” Tony asked, scandalised. Then his eyes widened. “Oh my god, is that a ‘no’? Please don’t tell me that’s a ‘no’.”

“That’s a resounding ‘yes’, you fool,” Steve smiled at him. “How could I say anything but yes? Was there ever a question that I _don’t_ want to spend my life with you?”

“Oh thank god,” Tony said, eagerly walking into Steve’s embrace when he opened his arms in invitation. “Can we forget all about this and go home now?”

“Not quite,” Steve hummed, kissing Tony gently. “I’m all for the going home part, though.”

“But?” Tony asked reluctantly.

“But,” Steve whispered into Tony’s ear, tugging leisurely at his tie. “I don’t think I can let you get off the hook for all the worry you’ve caused just like that. I think you better get ready for a bit of _punishment_.”

The shiver he received for his efforts was really all he needed for an answer.


End file.
